GENERAL INTRODUCTION
We define style as the way something is said, done or expressed. We speak of a particular style of speech or a unique style of writing. Style reveals a man’s inner self, his sensibility and perception. Style in literature invariably refers to the indubitable way in which a writer uses words, phrases, symbols, sounds and images to realize his goal. It has more to do with a signature language that a writer uses. It epitomizes his choice of words, phrases, the way he constructs his sentences, organizes paragraphs. Style encourages the reader to return to the language on the page and understand the message. A writer is not playing with cognitive linguistics but finding the exact words to use in his narrative. In order to understand the different styles of a writer, a reader must seek find the mot juste than some psychological schema.
Style is the substance of the writer but points of view, literary techniques, tone of voice, characterization or dialogue are part of his narrative method. Style may enter the structure of a work of art but it is different from the way the events in the story are arranged. As we read a work of art we gradually become aware of the writer’s style and use words like ‘elegant,’ ‘formal,’ ‘grand,’ ‘pompous’ or ‘crisp.’ Even though we experience style it is difficult for us to explain our perception as we lack the literary tools of analysis. Style is therefore far more difficult to grasp than content. However we often read in Times Literary Supplement that so-and-so writer’s style was ‘bad’ or it was ‘brilliant.’
Style can be seen not only as the artistic expression of a person but also of a group or a school. It can also refer to the imaginative or individual quality of the way language is employed. Style can be a form of appearance, a design, or production, the way in which something is done. Obviously it must be clear and simple. Aristotle mentioned in Rhetoric (350 BCE) that the foundation of a good style was “correctness of language” by which he implied five ingredients—firstly, proper use of connecting words; secondly, correct naming of things, thirdly, avoiding ambiguities; fourthly maintaining proper grammatical classification and finally, using correct words to express plurality, fewness and unity (Aristotle, 1984 174-75). Aristotle further distinguished the written and spoken style. The former was “more finished’ while the latter involved “oratory” and “emotion.” For Aristotle, a good style made the text readable.
Writers from the mid-eighteenth century were fascinated by the English prose style and pontificated on what constituted good style. Samuel Johnson (1709-1784) felt that a style which obscured “most evident truths” could be called “the bugbear style” as it did little to clarify but more to repulse and terrify (Johnson, 1758). Oliver Goldsmith (1730-1774) felt that the most sublime subjects were often expressed most simply. He elaborated,
True eloquence does not consist, as the rhetoricians assure us, in saying great things in a sublime style, but in a simple style, for there is, properly speaking, no such thing as a sublime style; the sublimity lies only in the things; and when they are not so, the language may be turgid, affected, metaphorical—but not affecting (Goldsmith, 1759).
American author William Dean Howells (1837-1920) points out that the style of a writer reveals his country, his race, his heart, his likes and dislikes.
The style is the man, and he cannot hide himself in any garb of words so that we shall not know somehow what manner of man he is within it; his speech betrayeth him, not only as to his country and his race, but more subtly yet as to his heart, and the loves and hates of his heart (Howells, 2006 19).
Style is something that exists beyond the ‘garb of words’ and no writer can; hide’ his inner self. Style is therefore a revelation of the self, of the hidden motives and desires of the writer. It is precisely because style captures the essence of man it is hard to explain and difficult to evaluate.
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